New Wexford Film Locations Website

Wexford County Council in partnership with Creative Ireland

Wexford County Council in partnership with Creative Ireland went live with a new Wexford Films Locations website on Saturday 4th November, 2017.

The site will help to promote the county as a great place for location filming and ultimately help to attract more film investment into the county. Home to major film productions such as ‘Saving Private Ryan’ , ‘The Sea’ and the more recent Oscar nominated ‘Brooklyn’, Wexford county has a stunning and varied landscape with a rich maritime and Norman heritage; lending itself well to the variety that film location companies need.

Earlier this year Film locations Manager Gordon Wycherley who worked on ‘ Brookyln’, was contracted by Wexford County Council’s Arts & Economic Development Departments to audit the county and create an extensive photo database of locations that would particularly appeal to film companies and film location managers.

The result is an extensive photo data base incorporating more than 4,000 images divided into over twenty categories such as Beaches, Castles, Rivers, Period Houses, villages etc all incorporated into an easy to navigate website.

The new website went live in early November with Wexford writer & Ambassador Eoin Colfer joining the Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council, Cllr John Hegarty in the National Opera House to mark the occasion. “We are really pleased with the launch of the website” said Cllr Hegarty, “as it makes the County much more accessible to film location managers. Having an industry eye in Gordon Wycherley to capture locations around the county and by working closely with the Irish Film Board, supported by Creative Ireland, we are confident that we will create more opportunity for Wexford in this sector.” Wexford Ambassador Eoin Colfer added ‘Location filming is worth a lot of money these days and Wexford has as much to offer as any other county in this area – I’m delighted to see the site being launched and have no doubt it will attract more interest in the County”’

Ireland has experienced record levels of film production in the last two years, with the Irish Film Board estimating a €250 million spend on feature films, TV drama and animation. The indigenous and overseas film industry now has firm roots developed in Ireland; not least due to the Government Section 481 tax incentive. In 2015, the Government announced a revised and improved version of the incentive to act as a stimulus to the growth of the film industry in Ireland. The scheme provides direct support to film production companies in the form of a corporation tax credit at a rate of 32 per cent of the cost of production of certain films, with the company receiving the incentive in the form of a cash rebate, based on a notional overpayment of corporation tax.

Economic Development Officer for Wexford, Carolyne Godkin added “The attraction of Ireland in attracting overseas location filming is well-established but its important not to underestimate how strong our indigenous industry has become. Citing the Countys’ most
recent success, the Irish Film Board supported gothic horror movie ‘The Lodgers’, was produced by the Dublin based production company, Tailored Films. Carolyne said “Tailored Films took advantage of one of the Countys’ most iconic heritage buildings – Loftus Hall as the suitably spooky setting for their movie. The company effectively moved down to Wexford with over 100 cast and crew for a 6-week period in late 2016, filming the vast majority of the movie in Loftus Hall, Johnstown Castle and Clongeen Village and bringing a boost in sales to many local businesses.”

By working closely with the Irish Film Board to ensure the new site is promoted to location managers at home and round the globe, Liz Burns, Arts Officer Wexford County Council outlined the plans for growth “As well as linking and promoting the WexfordFilmLocations.ie site through online and social media platforms, our plan is to continue to take advantage of film opportunities where we can and in particular to build a local film crew database to which we can promote these opportunities.”